Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

In the secret room of Jinxiang Palace, a room covered with notes, there are only Guo Shao and eunuch Cao Tai in it.

Cao Tai bowed and stood in front of the chair, on which was Guo Shao. Guo Shao was talking: "It's not appropriate for me to handle the affairs of the harem. Empress Duanci has to come forward for this matter. I think that the palace people should not be allowed to spread rumors wantonly in the palace. I just use this to let everyone know some rules. Otherwise, the palace people will talk a lot, and even dare to slander the reputation of Empress Duanci..."

Cao Tai hurriedly said: "Your Majesty's words are absolutely true."

Guo Shao felt that he had understood. In the past, people in the palace talked about Fu Jinzhan secretly because of the Yellow River scolding Jinzhan.

Guo Shao pondered for a moment, then took a brief pat on the military plan presented by General Cao Bin in his hand, and then said in a deep voice: "I still have to protect Concubine Zhang Taigui, she is Cao Bin's aunt. Cao Bin is of great use to me, and now I can't find a more suitable person than him. Since Cao Bin is to be reused, we ruined his aunt in the palace. What do you mean?"

"Yes, yes." Cao Tai nodded vigorously seriously.

After a while, he cautiously reminded again: "Your Majesty, if you want to protect Concubine Zhang Taigui... I'm afraid I won't be able to explain it clearly in the future."

Guo Shaodao: "Even the great emperors in ancient times, from Qin Shihuang to Han Wudi and Tang Taizong, who was not scolded? It is really difficult for a person to not be scolded at all. Just take it lightly and let others say it. Anyway, I am not afraid of scolding, and even a few scoldings can't hurt me."

After hearing this, Cao Tai hurriedly said, "Your Majesty is wise."

Guo Shao suddenly sighed. He really wants the world to be fair, black and white, good and evil; but he is also for some things, completely disregarding right and wrong.

...

At the gate of Wanfu Palace, a group of eunuchs walked quickly.

A thin eunuch with gray hair on the temples stepped forward, raised his head and looked at the people in front of the palace gate. The eunuch guarding the upstairs glanced down, "Ouch", jumped up from the chair, and rushed downstairs. He accidentally fell on the wall ladder, screaming in pain, ignoring the pain, and scrambling to the door.

"Eunuch Cao!" The eunuch bent over and smiled, and the corner of his mouth cracked because of the pain, his expression was very strange, "Eunuch Cao is here, what wind brought you here..."

Eunuch Cao Tai looked at the sky and said, "Empress Duanci's decree."

Everyone hurriedly knelt down on the ground.

Cao Tai immediately claimed that he was ordered by the imperial order to investigate the rumors. Then the eunuch guarding the Wanfu Palace was called in, and the little maid who had been driven back from the Sanqing Palace was arrested and questioned.

After the court lady was dragged out, although Cao Tai claimed to have verified the facts, he convicted her immediately: "Someone sued you for fabricating incidents and spreading rumors to slander the reputation of the official family and the Taizu's concubines. Can you be convicted?"

The little maid was too frightened to speak, she only knew that she was wronged.

When Cao Tai heard the injustice, he thought for a while, and said coldly: "You said, seeing Concubine Zhang Taigui's clothes wet with sesame oil, who can prove it?"

The little maid hurriedly said: "Wang Shanggong also knows about this..."

Cao Tai immediately sent someone to Sanqing Hall to call Wang Shanggong. When Wang Shanggong was asked about it, he kept saying, "I don't know anything about myself."

After hearing this, Cao Tai said harshly, "What else do you have to say!"

The little maid fell to her knees in fright.

Cao Tai said loudly: "The royal family treats you well, but you like to spread rumors and ruin your reputation. The crime is unforgivable! Come here, beat the miscellaneous family to death!"

After hearing this, several strong officials who had already prepared their thick wooden sticks rushed forward without any explanation, grabbed the maid by the hair and dragged her away. Not long after, the heavy beating sound of "crackling" was heard in the distance, and the palace maid screamed and screamed, the sound could be heard almost in the entire imperial city. Everyone's faces turned pale, and their mouths were speechless.

Cao Tai didn't change his face. It didn't take long for the maid's shouting to subside, but the sound of sticks beating flesh still persisted.

After a while, Cao Tai walked towards the place of execution. He smelled a mixed smell, frowned, and put his fingers in front of the maid's nose. Then he withdrew his fingers, turned his head and said, "This is someone who is in charge, tell them to collect the corpse. They are all optimistic! Spreading rumors without evidence is a felony!"

...

Concubine Li and the others could clearly hear every scream outside Wanfu Palace. They stayed inside, not daring to make a sound.

When the outside was silent, everyone remained silent for a long time.

At this time, someone came in and reported: "The Ministry of Internal Affairs told us to collect the body."

Concubine Li came back to her senses and said: "Let the eunuchs of Wanfu Palace carry it out and burn it."

After a long time, a palace lady finally said: "This matter should be the official's intention, and it is obviously biased towards Mrs. Zhang... We have been worried for so long, and we have thought of everything, but we can't say a word to the people above..."

Another sighed: "In this world, justice, etiquette, black and white right and wrong are all jokes, and the outcome depends not on what the powerful think."

The man just said: "Being favored is the kingly way. As long as the emperor loves you, what you do is wrong; if someone the emperor doesn't care about offends someone, so what?"

When Concubine Li heard this sentence, she took it for granted. Back then, Mrs. Zhang always dominated her and took all the benefits, just because that woman was more pleasing to the emperor!

Mrs. Li swallowed a bad breath, and said with lingering fear: "Don't talk about it, the higher-ups killed that palace lady, and killed a chicken for the monkey to see, we have to be more sensible."

"That's right, luckily I didn't vent my anger on Mrs. Li today..."

"Too abominable woman, worse than a bitch!"

...

Wang Shanggong also rushed to Sanqing Hall, and when he saw Mrs. Zhang, he couldn't wait and said, "Congratulations, Empress!"

Mrs. Zhang hurriedly asked: "What happened?"

Wang Shanggong said: "Empress Duanci sent Cao Tai, the eunuch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to beat the maid to death. The charge was of fabricating an incident and framing it for no reason. There is such a sentence, and someone died on it. Who will dare to use this matter in the future to say that the mother is not right?"

Mrs. Zhang was stunned, "Is it that simple and easy to deal with?"

Wang Shanggong said: "Yes."

Mrs. Zhang let out a long breath, and her whole body went limp. She thought very complicated and serious, but unexpectedly the result was so simple. She said dejectedly: "The lady in the palace also did her own crimes, she just slandered me and involved the officials, I expected that she would not survive..."

"Yes, yes." Wang Shanggong said in a deep voice, "Today when Cao Tai asked the servant, the servant didn't know what to say."

Wang Shanggong said softly again: "Empress Duanci has no relationship with you, this matter should be the official's intention... As long as the official respects the empress, then it will be useless for Li Empress to dance around!"

Mrs. Zhang said calmly: "The officials are like this... I didn't expect it. Although no one is allowed to talk about it, but he sent eunuchs to beat people to death, outsiders seem to be helping me; the officials also blamed themselves for that matter, I can't explain..."

At this moment, suddenly a female Taoist priest called out from outside the door: "Your Majesty, I have something to see you."

Mrs. Zhang said, "Come in and talk."

The Taoist opened the door and came in, anxiously said: "Your Majesty has come to Sanqing Hall, and he said he would come to ask your mother well!"

Mrs. Zhang's face turned red, and she hurriedly calmed down, but she couldn't control the blush on her face. Her mind went blank, she was at a loss, and she murmured, "The official came to see me at this time, what do you mean..."

But she was still very grateful to Guo Shao for helping her stand out. She stood up and took two steps, then sat in front of the bronze mirror to look at her hair and face. After a while, she realized that this behavior was inappropriate in front of people, so she immediately lowered her face and said, "Since the official family is coming, I can't be disheveled."

Sure enough, after a while, Guo Shao came. Mrs. Zhang walked into the hall outside, feeling extremely nervous, and didn't even dare to take a look.

Guo Shao saw that her face was flushed and she was very nervous between words and deeds. He pondered for a moment, then said: "I and the imperial concubine have always been polite, and they are fine, but I feel uncomfortable when I ask someone to talk about it."

Mrs. Zhang raised her head and curled her lips, saying: "The official is right, I am not afraid of the shadow if I am upright, why should I care about those rumors!"

Guo Shao was not too polite, he sat down on the futon, there was still a game of chess on the table, and there were still broken chess pieces on the board. Guo Shao lowered his head to observe, he had just learned some Go moves recently, and the novelty was still there.

Mrs. Zhang said in a panic, "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask Your Majesty to sit down."

She quickly brought another futon over, and said softly, "Your Majesty, put this on, it's softer."

Guo Shao took it casually, and in order to behave naturally, he continued to watch the chess game. After a while, Mrs. Zhang said again: "Is Your Majesty thirsty? I'll make you tea."

While drinking tea, she asked again, "Is it hot?"

Gradually, Guo Shao began to enjoy such meticulous care. It was hard for him to remember what he was here for today... He said immediately: "The imperial concubine is a monk and does not have to stay in Sanqing Palace all the time. There is a Taoist temple outside the palace called 'Yuzhen Temple', and it is full of female Taoist priests. If the imperial concubine wants to go for a walk, Empress Duanci will allow it..."

After hearing this, Mrs. Zhang bit her lips lightly, her chest heaved up and down, her heart almost jumped out, as if she was doing something terrible, she said softly: "Your Majesty...what do you mean?"

Guo Shaodao: "In the Taoist temple, you can meet Cao Bin."

Mrs. Zhang exhaled suddenly, and suddenly said: "Oh..." Then he said hurriedly, "Your Majesty has taken good care of me in the palace. I will definitely tell Cao Bin not to forget the grace of God, and to serve the country well."

Guo Shao said nicely: "That's right, I came to visit Qingxu, because the concubine is staying here, I just stopped by to say hello, but I didn't do anything for her. The recent incident was ordered by Empress Duanci; Empress Duanci respects her concubine very much in private."

"Oh?" Zhang asked puzzled.

Guo Shaodao: "There is a past story, Taoist nun Qingxu rescued Empress Duanci before, Qingxu said in front of Empress Duanci that the imperial concubine is very nice."

Mrs. Zhang nodded thoughtfully: "So that's the case."

She thought to herself, that Qingxu is the lord of the Sanqing Palace, but he never cares about his affairs and doesn't interact with her very much, why did he speak for himself in front of Empress Duanci?

Mrs. Zhang observed Guo Shao's face from time to time, but felt that he was suddenly far and near, making it difficult to guess his heart. \u003c